Translation and Censorship (PDF)

Working with the concept of censorship in Translation Studies is working with a (political) term that does not bring order to our field of study. Translation inseparable from various constraints offers the theoretical possibility of being equated with censorship. How can translation, as a process and a product that essentially functions as a complex network of exclusions and inclusions, be studied distinctively in relation to censorship - i. e. in relation to a similar complex network? What is the added value of ascribing different names to these two complex networks of exclusion and inclusion? Beyond external regulations and text-bound clues, agony and irritation are to be sought. These combined with a state of forlornness make the violence of censorship differentiable as such.

Zahra Samareh studied Translation and Interpreting in Iran and carried out her dissertation in the field of Translation Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany. In addition to censorship, her main research subjects include taboos and violence in relation to interlingual and intercultural communication. She has worked as a lecturer at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz/Germersheim and is a translator for German, English and Persian.